Engine Works
Under the hood of Alteryx: tips, tricks and how-tos.
Alteryx Architectures - Introduction
Alteryx Architectures - Starter Architectures (you are here)
Alteryx Architectures - SAML SSO Authentication
Alteryx Architectures - Workload Management
Welcome to the second article in the Alteryx Architectures blog series. In this installment, we’ll take a look at what we call “starter architectures,” common architectures often seen with initial installations of Alteryx Server. These relatively simple designs can then be scaled in the future to accommodate evolving performance and management needs.
Introduction
When architecting an Alteryx Server environment, in the best case scenario, we have data from an existing workload to analyze and then guide a design. However, if you are installing Alteryx Server for the first time, you may not have much useful execution data to analyze.
Without historic execution data from an existing Alteryx Server, we typically estimate the expected workload, and focus on one of the following designs as a starting point. After you deploy and gain experience operating within a starter architecture, you’ll also start generating some useful execution and performance metrics. That data and experience can then guide scaling and optimization beyond the initial starter architecture.
Alteryx technical associates can help you in both the initial design of your environment, or when scaling and optimizing your existing architecture. The following designs are not a substitute for a sizing exercise to determine the appropriately sized Alteryx Server deployment to best fit your organization's business requirements, workload patterns, and data sizes. The following designs are not necessarily the bare minimum hardware/licensing requirement as noted here, but rather starter designs which are most commonly recommended. These recommendations are derived from Alteryx internal benchmarking as well as observations from customer experiences.
Starter Architecture A
Single-node Alteryx Server
Specifications
- Alteryx Server, single-node
- All four services configured: Controller, Worker, Gallery, and MongoDB Database
- Worker configured to process four simultaneous workflows
- 8 CPU Cores (physical)
- 128 GB RAM
- Disk:
- C : 100GB(+)
- D : 1TB(+) SSD with installed Location/Business datasets, or 500GB(+) SSD without
- All four services configured: Controller, Worker, Gallery, and MongoDB Database
Capabilities
- Standard Server Functionality
- Ad-hoc, web-based workflow execution
- Scheduled workflow execution
- Centralized workflow version control
- REST API for execution, administration, and audit
- Centralized management of authorization (for execution, data connections, credentials)
- Capable of providing 240 minutes of workflow execution per hour *
- Capable of serving up to 100 concurrent web user sessions *
Alteryx Licensing
Alteryx Server uses a core-based licensing model. The following licenses will serve the operation of the Alteryx Server architecture described above:
- 1 x Alteryx Server
- 2 x Alteryx Server 2-Core Additional Capacity
Environment Summary
In this architecture, all of the four main service components of Server (Controller, Worker, MongoDB persistence, and the Gallery front-end) reside on a single node. When we platform all four services on a single node, we generally recommend eight CPU cores as a starting point, which allows for four simultaneously processing workflows (using classic E1 engine).
* Based on average behavior and recommended configurations. Your performance may vary.
Starter Architecture B
Two-node Environment
Specifications
- Primary node
- Multiple services configured: Controller, Worker, Gallery, and MongoDB Database
- Worker configured to process four simultaneous workflows
- 8 CPU Cores (physical)
- 128GB RAM
- Disk:
- C : 100GB(+)
- D : 1TB(+) SSD with installed Location/Business datasets, or 500GB(+) SSD without
- Multiple services configured: Controller, Worker, Gallery, and MongoDB Database
- Worker node
- 8 CPU Cores (physical)
- 128GB RAM
- Disk:
- C : 100GB(+)
- D : 1TB(+) SSD with installed Location/Business datasets, or 500GB(+) SSD without
- Worker service configured
- Worker configured to process four simultaneous workflows
- Worker configured to process four simultaneous workflows
Capabilities
- Standard Server Functionality
- Ad-hoc, web-based workflow execution
- Scheduled workflow execution
- Centralized workflow version control
- REST API for execution, administration, and audit
- Centralized management of authorization (for execution, data connections, credentials)
- Capable of providing 480 minutes of workflow execution per hour *
- Capable of serving up to 100 concurrent web user sessions *
- Workload management options, including Worker assignment
Alteryx Licensing
Alteryx Server uses a core-based licensing model. The following licenses will serve the operation of the Alteryx Server architecture described above:
- 1 x Alteryx Server
- 6 x Alteryx Server 2-Core Additional Capacity
Environment Summary
In this architecture, all of the four main service components of Server (Controller, Worker, MongoDB persistence, and the Gallery front-end) reside on a single node, and an additional Worker node is added into the environment. When we configure all four services on a single node, we generally recommend eight CPU cores as a starting point, which allows for four simultaneously processing workflows (using classic E1 engine). By including an additional Worker node, this allows a doubling in the number of workflows the environment can process simultaneously. Each node would be configured to allow four simultaneous job executions.
* Based on average behavior and recommended configurations. Your performance may vary.
Starter Architecture C
Three-node Environment
Specifications
- Primary Node
- Multiple services configured: Controller, MongoDB Database, and Worker
- Worker configured to process QoS 6 (workflow validations)
- 8 CPU Cores (physical)
- 128GB RAM
- Disk:
- C : 100GB(+)
- D : 500GB(+)
- Multiple services configured: Controller, MongoDB Database, and Worker
- Worker node
- 8 CPU Cores (physical)
- 128GB RAM
- Disk:
- C : 100GB(+)
- D : 1TB(+) SSD with installed Location/Business datasets, or 500GB(+) SSD without
- Worker service configured
- Worker configured to process four simultaneous workflows
- Worker node
- 8 CPU Cores (physical)
- 128GB RAM
- Disk:
- C : 100GB(+)
- D : 1TB(+) SSD with installed Location/Business datasets, or 500GB(+) SSD without
- Worker service configured
- Worker configured to process four simultaneous workflows
- Worker configured to process four simultaneous workflows
Capabilities
- Standard Server Functionality
- Ad-hoc, web-based workflow execution
- Scheduled workflow execution
- Centralized workflow version control
- REST API for execution, administration, and audit
- Centralized management of authorization (for execution, data connections, credentials)
- Capable of providing 480 minutes of workflow execution per hour *
- Capable of serving up to 100 concurrent web user sessions *
- Workload management options, including Worker assignment
- Redundancy for the Worker service
Alteryx Licensing
Alteryx Server uses a core-based licensing model. The following licenses will serve the operation of the Alteryx Server architecture described above:
- 1 x Alteryx Server
- 10 x Alteryx Server 2-Core Additional Capacity
Environment Summary
In this architecture, the Gallery and Worker processes have been offloaded from the Controller node, with the exception of a Worker process configured to only provide workflow validation (an operation that occurs when workflows are published). By including an additional Worker node, this allows an increase in the number of workflows the environment can process simultaneously. Each node would be configured to allow four simultaneous job executions, for an environment total of eight jobs (using classic E1 engine). The Gallery service has also been offloaded from the Controller, which segregates the services more, allowing better access to resources.
* Based on average behavior and recommended configurations. Your performance may vary.
Other Designs & Configurations
The three starter architectures describe just the beginning of possible Alteryx Server architectures. These designs could be modified to suit specific needs. These starter designs aren’t intended to address more advanced considerations around full redundancy, high availability, and/or full service segregation. More advanced architectures will be discussed in subsequent articles in this series.
Summary
In this blog we have introduced the primary “starter architectures” often used when customers initially deploy Alteryx Server. In subsequent blog entries in this series, we will look at a number of more detailed topics ranging from scalability, high availability, cloud deployments, and more. If you have any topics you would specifically like to see discussed, please leave a comment below. Thanks!
